[Interview] 'Star Trek: Discovery' is over. Now Alex Kurtzman readies for 'Starfleet Academy' and 'Section 31'
[Interview] 'Star Trek: Discovery' is over. Now Alex Kurtzman readies for 'Starfleet Academy' and 'Section 31'
Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the current 'Star Trek' franchise, discusses the series finale of 'Discovery' and what to expect from 'Starfleet Academy' and 'Section 31.'
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I really like his answer to a question about Academy's setting:
So you’re setting this —
In the “Discovery” era. There’s a specific reason for that. As the father of a 17-year-old boy, I see what my son is feeling as he looks at the world and to his future. I see the uncertainty; I see all the things we took for granted as given are not certainties for him. I see him recognizing he’s inheriting an enormous mess to clean up and it’s going to be on his generation to figure out how to do that, and that’s a lot to ask of a kid. My thinking was, if we set “Starfleet Academy” in the halcyon days of the Federation where everything was fine, it’s not going to speak to what kids are going through right now.
It’ll be a nice fantasy, but it’s not really going to be authentic. What’ll be authentic is to set it in the timeline where this is the first class back after over 100 years, and they are coming into a world that is only beginning to recover from a cataclysm — which was the Burn, as established on “Star Trek: Discovery,” where the Federation was greatly diminished. So they’re the first who’ll inherit, who’ll re-inherit, the task of exploration as a primary goal, because there just wasn’t room for that during the Burn — everybody was playing defense. It’s an incredibly optimistic show, an incredibly fun show; it’s a very funny show, and it’s a very emotional show. I think these kids, in different ways, are going to represent what a lot of kids are feeling now.
I don't know. I watched the first few seasons of Dicsco, but it wasn't for me. Having it set so far in the future seems to me to remove it from so much of ST lore. It'll only overlap 1 series.
I think that's a good thing - not just for the reasons Kurtzman highlighted, but because Starfleet being in a "rebuild" phase gives them a nice excuse to put cadets to work.
I also just enjoy the 32nd century setting, so I'm glad to stick with it a while longer.
The problem is that the Burn is space magic, but the problems of today's world is being caused by ourselves. These cadets have all the support of their political structure to enact change. We don't have that. Our entire political and economic system is stacked against us right now. You'll need to take a lot of power and money away from people who will salt the earth rather than give it up.
I love the sentiment behind it, but I can only hope it delivers on a truly revolutionary premise.